Bitcoin beginning

Bitcoin is the first open source, peer to peer, decentralized technology that transfers tamper-proof ownership of digital data without the use of a third party.

Conceptually, Bitcoin is the largest on-going experiment that is meant to make our day-to-day lives more efficient, convenient and safe. It's considered "on-going" because Bitcoin's code could potentially be updated by brilliant developers that want to improve its stability and functionality.

At its core, Bitcoin is a protocol similar in the way the TCP/IP protocol is for the internet. You may not be familiar with TCP/IP but everyone knows and uses websites that are built on-top of TCP/IP. Bitcoin is a platform to build and support an infinite amount of infrastructure. Infrastructure comes in the form of innovative applications that may already exist but can potentially be improved with the use of Bitcoin or applications that were not possible to achieve before Bitcoin’s existence.

You may have heard of Bitcoin for being used as digital cash over the internet because it is faster, cheaper, etc. Money is just the first application of Bitcoin, but the technology has unlimited applications yet to be discovered.

Bitcoin is the solution to one of the largest problems faced since the invention of the internet - double spending. Contrary to data on the internet that can be easily cloned, bitcoins cannot be duplicated or counterfeited.

TLDR: Bitcoin is a protocol that integrates cloud, decentralization, open source, peer to peer and blockchain technologies to transfer tamper-proof ownership of data without a third party. The protocol supports new and innovate applications that can be built around Bitcoin. The innovation will change the way we interact peer to peer as “currency” is just the first application of Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin whitepaper was published on October 31, 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was registered on sourceforge.com, a place for developers to collaboratively manage free open source code. The first block (the gensis block) was mined on January 03, 2009. This day is considered Bitcoin's birthday. From 2009-2011 (mid), Bitcoin ran under the radar and was accepted by visionaries, unknown, or misunderstood. But in the summer of 2011, Bitcoin slowly gained traction and legitimacy as visionaries and entrepreneurs discovered Bitcoin's advantages and it's huge potential.

TLDR: The Bitcoin whitepaper was published on October 31, 2008 and went live on January 03, 2009.

There is no owner of Bitcoin, as a result, Bitcoin is not susceptible to having a single point of failure. Also, Bitcoin is operated by those participating in the peer to peer network. As long as two bitcoin nodes exist, Bitcoin can remain functional.

TLDR: No one owns Bitcoin. Bitcoin is distributed all over the world by its users.

Bitcoin has the potential to be used for a diverse range of technical developments. The list of merchants that accept Bitcoin is growing rapidly on a worldwide spectrum. The acceptance of Bitcoin is being done in a wide variety of ways whether it is for in-store purchases or online. Purchases can range from purchasing an $11.00 t-shirt to an $11,000,000.00 yacht to a ticket to fly to space.

TLDR: Use Bitcoin for almost anything, either directly or indirectly via 3rd parties.

Bitcoin was created by a mysterious person or group that went by the pseudonymous forum name, Satoshi Nakamoto, on bitcointalk.org. Satoshi severed all communication between everyone but before he disappeared he encouraged the current lead bitcoin core developer, Gavin Andresen, to continue working on Bitcoin.

Luckily, Bitcoin’s platform is “open-source” which means anyone in the world can audit it and it is not reliant on the trust of human behavior, rather the trust in its mathematics and coding.

TLDR: Bitcoin was created by someone or a group under the pseudonymous of Satoshi Nakamoto.